Samantha Shelton, a 36-year-old part-time executive assistant, is a pro at taking care of people. She is thorough and well-organized.
Growing up, she was well-regarded as a baby sitter and pet sitter. She even aspired to be a teacher once, but after just two years at Kennesaw State University she dropped out to work at Turner Broadcasting, first as an executive assistant, then as a promoter for the Goodwill Games, a job that allowed her to travel the world.
But it all came to a halt when Turner Broadcasting was purchased by Time Warner.
The company handed Shelton a pink slip. Just two weeks later, she landed a job at a Colorado Internet company, but that didn't last either. In 2001, when the dot-com industry went bust, Shelton returned home to Atlanta.
A cat walks by and, bam, her whole life changes.
True story.
Sometime on the morning of Oct. 11, 2001, Shelton was in her kitchen having a cup of coffee when she saw "a mama cat" cross her backyard, the yard she'd turned into a sanctuary for birds complete with some 20 feeders, baths and a rose garden.
Shelton had seen the cat before. More than once, mama cat had turned the place into a feeding ground. And more than once, Shelton had shooed her away.
This time, though, three kittens trailed mama cat and Shelton saw mama cat in a whole new light. Her visitor wasn't a neighborhood intruder at all. She was a homeless mother trying to provide for her young.
Shelton picked up the phone and for the next three days searched for a shelter that could take her new charges.
It's always a mystery how these things happen, how without warning the universe chooses you to work things for good.
There were no plans. Things just sorta fell into place.
"Naturally,'' said Shelton.
When she finally found a local shelter willing to help, the help sneakily persuaded Shelton to take the cats in herself.
They even talked her into signing on as a volunteer, cleaning cages once a month after work.
It wasn't a bad gig. Shelton enjoyed talking with customers. She found herself enjoying the time there.
"All of a sudden," she said, "I knew this was what I wanted to do with my life."
Shelton entered a whole new world of animal rescue and adoption.
By February 2002, she was running her own adoption center out of a local pet store. She posted a sign for volunteers. A dozen signed up.
In 2003, she applied for nonprofit status and expanded into another Petsmart.
Shelton called her agency Furkids and adopted an orange --- for passionate and great love --- kitten as the shelter's logo. She formed a network of volunteers to foster dogs.
Early this year, with an unsolicited $5,000 gift from an uncle she'd put in a money market to grow, Shelton opened a 5,000-square-foot shelter on Pleasantdale Road in Atlanta.
Since its beginning in 2002, Furkids has placed over 1,200 animals, rescuing about 500 abandoned pets each year. All pets are spayed or neutered and examined by a veterinarian, and at any given time, Furkids can house about 175 cats.
Shelton runs the shelter five days a week with a staff of volunteers.
It's a sight to see. No cages. No kill. No worry.
With its bright-colored walls and 11 rooms where cats roam free, it looks more like a day care center than an animal shelter.
She's been asked why she puts so much into caring for animals when so many people are in need. She doesn't mind the question.
She believes she is doing both: providing people purpose and animals homes.
"I receive 100 calls and e-mails a day," she said. "There is a great need out there. We're doing our part to fill it."
It's quite a leap from planning events and traveling the world. But the closer you get to the thing that drives Samantha Shelton, the thing that changed her life, the closer you get to love.